658 



it was not a rare thing for the menses to begin at the early age of 

 li. Tlie average age of liie menarche of the niotiiers was J4 years, 

 9 months, and 25 days; and of the daughters 13 years, 7 months, 

 and 1 ilay, which means tiiat in one generation the menarche has 

 precipitated with fourteen-and-a-haif months. Tiiat the difference 

 fonnd here is not so great as what we find on comparing the 

 menarche of women horn before 1880 with those born abont the 

 beginning of this centnry (one-and-a-half years), can perhaps be 

 explained by the fact that among tiie former there were persons of 

 a much ohier age, and the process of precipitation of the menarche 

 is presumably already longer at work. 



The appearance of the menarciie in the youngest generation, 14'/, 

 months earlier than formerly, as found in Table V, almost coincides 

 with the results of the second group of mothers (56) and danghteis 

 (82), of which only the year of tlie menarche could be mentioned. 

 Here the mothers wei-e, on an average, 15 years, 1 month, and 

 3 days old, and tiio daughters 13 years, 10 months, and 15 days; 

 that is again a dill'erence of 147, nionlhs. 



These results undeniably prove the considerable precipitation of the 

 function of the sexual glands during the last decades; for although 

 the figures of this earlier appearance of the menstration may vary 

 a little, one can fix the average at about 14 months. 



This is a fact of great importance, highly interesting as physiolo- 

 gical phenomenon, and of not less great significance from a social 

 and paedagogic point of view. For the appearance of the menarche 

 14 months earlier, means to say a shortening of childhood with 

 this period, an earlier activation of the sexual sphere in the present 

 generation, compared to the former. Much of what the attentive 

 obsei'ver and listener sees and hears in modern social life is explained 

 by this earlier awakening of the consciousness of womanhood. This 

 is, however, not the place to enter into this question further. 



Extensive speculations as to the cause of this phenomenon will 

 not be given here; I will restrict myself to a few general remarks. 

 In the individual process of development of woman the first men- 

 struation is an event of more than ordinary significance ; with the 

 commencement of sexual maturity far-reaching changes take place in 

 the general physiology of her development. And if this process makes 

 its appearance considerably earlier this must be looked upon as the 

 expression of a hastened process in her development. Now in the 

 first place the question arises: have we to do here with a symptom 

 of an accelerated development in general, or is it an independent 

 phenomenon? Without special investigations this question cannot be 



